Where celebrity and politics combine

Michael Sean Winters
|
Jun. 11, 2009
NCR Today

Michel Martin at NPR,s "Tell Me More" had a fun segment[1] on President Obama's taking his wife on fancy date nights. There was the trip to New York for dinner in the Village and a Broadway show. Then, the trip to Paris with dinner at a Bistro in the 5th, albeit one that is hardly one of the more expensive Parisian culinary haunts.

Michel's male guest worried that Obama is setting the bar very high for husbands everywhere. Her female guest was way too philosophic about the whole subject. But, they did not focus on the political fallout from the trips which were attacked as overly expensive when the nation is struggling by several conservative pundits and politicians.

In fact, I suspect the trips did not hurt Obama with most women who like the idea that he knows how to treat his wife well. And, men can always plead that they weren’t invited to speak at Normandy nor do they have their own plane to fly to NYC for the night. In our contemporary culture, where celebrity and politics combine in all sorts of strange ways, these date nights are a net plus for Obama. And, what is more important, it sounds like they had a good time.